This Is So Not Happening

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Book: Read This Is So Not Happening for Free Online
Authors: Kieran Scott
That’s sweet, Ally, but you don’t have to get us anything,” Gray said, giving my shoulders a squeeze as he passed me by. He joined my mom at the coffee machine and they shared a kiss as he poured half and half in her mug for her. Which made me think of how my dad used to do the same thing. Which made me nauseous. I pushed my Frosted Flakes aside.
    “Gray’s right. Just make a good speech at the wedding,” Mom said.
    My mouth fell open. She couldn’t be serious. “I have to make a speech?”
    “Hello? You are the maid of honor,” Quinn said, peeling a banana as she sat next to me.
    I dropped my head onto my hand. “Just kill me now.”
    “Ally,” my mom said in her favorite warning tone.
    I sighed and rubbed my face with both hands. It felt dry and tight, like my eyes.
    “Ally?” Now she sounded more concerned. She placed her hand on my back and I tensed. “Is something wrong? Is it the wedding?”
    “No.” I slid my laptop off the island and into its case. “I’m fine about the wedding.”
    “Liar, liar …” Quinn sang, tilting her head to the side.
    “Quinn,” her dad said in his favorite warning tone.
    “What? I totally heard her on the phone last night telling someone all about how the wedding planning was stressing her out,” Quinn said.
    My face burned. “You listened in on my phone call?”
    “Well, you could try dialing it down a notch,” Quinn said, rolling her eyes. “They could hear you all the way in Newark.”
    “Mom!” I groaned.
    “Girls, please.” My mother held out her hands like two stop signs. She and Gray looked at each other over our heads and, surprisingly, smiled. “Well, they’ve got the sister thing down.”
    Okay, now I really was going to puke.
    “I have to go,” I said, gathering my stuff. “Dad’s probablyoutside already. I’m going with him to Jump before school.”
    I headed toward the foyer, but my mom followed me.
    “Ally, hang on a second, please.”
    I paused in the center of the marble floor, next to the huge potted tree I’d never seen anyone water. Yet somehow, it was still alive. One of the many mysteries of the Nathanson household.
    “Remember what we said,” my mother told me. “At the end of the summer? You promised me that if there was ever anything wrong, you would talk to me about it.”
    I yanked my backpack strap onto my shoulder, feeling heavy with guilt. Looking back on the summer always made me feel awful. I’d been a brat, plain and simple. I hadn’t liked the way things were going and instead of talking to anyone about it, I’d pouted and complained and acted like an idiot, trying to manipulate my mom into getting back together with my dad. After we’d had our long, long make-up talk, I had promised her I’d tell her if something was bothering me, but I’d also promised myself I’d be nicer to her. Which meant not complaining about her wedding and a speech I didn’t know I had to make.
    But I also couldn’t tell her what was going on. It wasn’t my secret to tell.
    “It’s just … there’s so much, between the SAT and college applications and the recruitment thing,” I told her. “I just want it to be over with already. I want to know where I’m going to be next year.”
    I’d actually kind of like to be there already , I added silently, wishing for a mode of escape from all the drama.
    “I know. I know it’s not easy,” my mom said, smoothing my hair behind my ear. “But you’re gonna do fine. You’re amazing, Ally. Any college would be lucky to have you.”
    I smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Mom.”
    “So, listen … there is something else I want to talk to you about,” my mother said as we walked slowly toward the double doors at the front of the house. “Gray wants to take me on a real honeymoon. Two weeks on the Amalfi Coast,” she said with a grin. “But if we go, that means …”
    With a start I realized what she was getting at. My birthday. If she was gone for two weeks after the wedding,

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